Software

Crucial Aspects of A/B Testing on Google Play Store

A/B Split Testing

Google among the gamut of announcements made at 2015 I/O conference, introduced A/B testing feature to help developers assess the potential of their apps as far as discoverability of their apps on Play store is concerned. Obviously, this announcement has enjoyed widespread attention from the Android developers worldwide as Play Store is continuing to become the most formidable app store for mobile apps. As per the demands made by Google in the past few days this newly introduced developer friendly feature helped many app developers to garner double digit install rate in just a few days. In the 2015 chapter of I/O 2015 Google has come up with a bevy of great enhancements for developers to achieve more Play Store visibility and turn more downloads and traffic. The A/B testing tool for listings naturally is considered their best offering for the developers in this event.

What is A/B testing and how it works?

A/B testing is a powerful developer tool to have for finding the areas of an app that you can optimize for better results. A so called testing environment allows you to test an app several times but from a marketing point of view that is not enough. Hardly one can assess the user reaction unless and until the app hits the play store. Now by presenting the app directly for the perusal of the users, app developers and entrepreneurs can assess the user reaction and find areas that need enhancements or repair for a better result. By testing the listing elements of the app it enhances the chances of discoverability, traffic and obviously resulting download number.

How does A/B testing benefits app developers and users?

A/B testing not only just helps developers in their pursuit of getting more app views and traffic but it also makes user experience better in a number of ways. Let us have a look at the key benefits of A/B testing from both developers’ and users’ point of view.

  • It will help developers increase the rate of Play Store view and downloads.
  • This feature will also help augmenting the app quality as developers will be able to make changes based upon the user reaction.
  • The feature will also work as a great marketing tool as the app will get advanced exposure to the market long before the app is actually launched.
  • Obviously, offering an optimized app after addressing all the aspects will save much drainage of effort and cost for the developer company.
  • Finally, by testing the effects on the users the developers can further assess geo location based acceptance and popularity factors for the app and accordingly can consider optimizing the app.
  • Further in the process the developers can consider separate monetization strategy for different versions of the same app and accordingly can make changes in the app profile in Play Store listing.

Why A/B testing is so crucial for developers?

The Play Store listing with its Android presence in widest range of devices and practically unmatched number of users counts a lot for the developers to attract more users and enhance discoverability of the app consequently the chances of download. It is quite evident that what the users see and read on Play Store listing of your app directly influences their decision in downloading the app. The need of a good listing is agreed upon because it is the gateway to introduce your app to the potential users. Naturally, optimizing the Play Store description, screenshots and other visual and readable aspects are too important if you want to tap the Play Store users in bigger volume.

For helping the developers in their optimizing maneuvers of the Play Store listing Google has come up with A/B testing for Play Store listings. This new feature will allow developers to test different screenshots, graphics, app descriptions, etc. before understanding the scopes of optimizing the app further for the listing. Thus they can clearly see the elements that are pulling their app down from and the app attributes that perform better. Evaluating these aspects and thereafter by addressing them they can make their listing elements perfect to draw more traffic and garner more downloads.

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Paul Tomaszewski is a science & tech writer as well as a programmer and entrepreneur. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of CosmoBC. He has a degree in computer science from John Abbott College, a bachelor's degree in technology from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, and completed some business and economics classes at Concordia University in Montreal. While in college he was the vice-president of the Astronomy Club. In his spare time he is an amateur astronomer and enjoys reading or watching science-fiction. You can follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

One Comment

  • Matt

    Thanks Juned for the detailed overview. Happy to say that we developed a tool to A/B test mobile pages for both Apps Store and Google Play. Feel free ping me if interested in more details

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